Serendipity
by Southernburn
Summary: ser-en-dip-i-ty noun - the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely....say hello to LoMax!
1. Chapter 1

Title: Serendipity

Author: SouthernBurn

Rating: This chapter is PG

Disclaimer: All General Hospital characters are copyrighted, and are used without permission. This story is a figment of my own imagination. . If you can't wait to read more please visit my message board for the continuation of this story and other fan fiction.

Chapter 1

"What are you doing here?" He asked as he walked her backwards until her bare shoulder blades pressed against the scratchy brick wall of the alleyway. His larger frame loomed over her petite one as his breath tickled her forehead. She defiantly tilted her head back and stared into his flaming green eyes, "Is this supposed to scare me?"

"I don't know Maxie, are you scared?" he asked placing his hands on either side of her shoulders, leaning in and effectively trapping her with no way out.

She swallowed hard willing her nerves to stay hidden from his onslaught, "Logan, you don't scare me."

"No?" he asked as he shifted one hand from the wall to trace his index finger along the visibly pounding pulse in her neck.

"Did you think I couldn't hear you in that hospital room, that I wouldn't know what you almost did to me?" He closed his large hand around her throat, pressing slightly and whispered in her ear. "Maybe you should have pulled the plug when you had the chance."

The pain of first losing Georgie and then Coop, plus being attacked herself had been too much and had left her broken inside. When all signs and clues pointed to Logan being the TMK…she found her hand wrapped around the plug of his life support system determined to finish the job Lulu had started. Tears glittered in her eyes but she didn't pull away. "If you could hear me then you know why I wanted to do it."

He clenched his jaw and dropped his hands in exhaustion and slowly fished his keys out of his pocket. "Yeah I know, thanks for deciding not to be the judge and jury on this one."

When he turned into the light Maxie finally noticed how pale he was and the way his face had narrowed with a visible weight loss. "You look like shit, Hayes."

"Yeah well spending two weeks in a coma after your girlfriend hits you over the head with a wrench will do that to a guy. " he snarked and twisted the doorknob open.

She followed him in and tossed her hand bag on the chair, "How did you get home? I thought Scott would have picked you up at the hospital?"

He glared at her and dropped onto the couch. "He doesn't know I was released and I wasn't waiting around there one more minute." He closed his eyes too tired to even take off his jacket, "I can take care of myself, I don't need anyone."

"Yeah and you're doing such a great job at it too." She retorted and reached down to pull a boot off one foot and then the other.

"Maxie, I'm really not up to sparring with you right now. What do you want?" He blindly asked tucking his feet up on the couch

"Robin called and told me you insisted on discharging yourself. I came to check on you."

"What are you here to finish the job this time? Encase you didn't hear they caught the real Text Message Killer and it's not me. " he asked as she started to tugged on his arm.

"Just be thankful to Coop, he wouldn't let me do it. Come on, let me help you to bed." She continued.

He groaned, finally relented and let her pull him to his feet. He watched her with curiosity as she led him to his bed on the other side of the room, trying to figure out what her angle was. But her was too tired to sort it all out and he flopped in the middle of the bed on his back pulling her on top of him in the same motion. He sighed at the familiar softness of the mattress beneath him and the lingering scent of Maxie's perfume.

She shifted and peeled away the hand that had already made its way to cup her ass. "I don't think this is what the doctors had in mind when they said bed rest."

All she got out of him was a small moan of agreement as he already seemed to be drifting off to sleep. She made quick work of the buttons on his shirt and shook him until he rolled and she could pull his arms free from the sleeves. She sat up on her knees and watched the steady rise and fall of his chest and let her fingertips skirt the dark bruises from the IVs in the crook of his arm.

Her guilt at what she had almost done to him constricted her chest, and she closed her eyes to blink away the tears before tugging at the oversized belt buckle until it finally gave. She stood up and pulled on the buttonfly of his jeans, revealing lean hips and untanned skin and pulled them off the rest of the way. She swung his legs up on the bed and covered him with a blanket as he rolled onto his side gathering it in his fist.

He eyes flicked open and he caught her gaze and murmured, "Thank you.", before he drifted off to sleep.

Maxie stood there and watched him trying to figure out what her next move should be until she finally folded his jeans over her forearm. She prayed to Georgie and Coop to give her the strength and patience she was going to need to get Logan to forgive her for doubting him. His jeans were heavy and she pulled his wallet, some unfilled prescriptions and loose change from the pockets and placed them on the corner of the night stand. She gathered up the rest of the clothes from the floor and a chair in the corner and dumped them into an empty laundry basket before making her way into the kitchen.

She made a quick inventory of his refrigerator and found it to be empty except for a six pack of beer and some old take out boxes from god knows when. She dumped them in the trash, snatched his laundry off the countertop, the prescriptions to be filled off the nightstand and grabbed his keys from the coffee table.

Maxie looked over at him one more time before opening the door and running in face to face with Lulu Spencer.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Maxie pulled the door closed behind her and stared at Lulu as a slow burn of fury began to build in her chest. "What are you doing here?" she spat.

"I could ask you the same question," Lulu quipped as she tried to step around Maxie while pulling out the spare key to Logan's apartment from her handbag.

"Oh, I don't think so! " Maxie exclaimed and in a blink of an eye swiped the keys from Lulu's hand. "Logan's sleeping and I think you are the last person he needs to see right now."

Lulu attempted to grab her keys back, but Maxie buried them in Logan's laundry. Giving up Lulu crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned her weight back on one hip.

"Who died and put you in charge?" Lulu asked as she surveyed the laundry basket and prescription scripts clutched in Maxie's hand. "Oh, let me guess you're trying to put yourself in Logan's good graces so he won't press charges against you for attempted murder?"

"Isn't that rich coming from the girl that actually hit him over the head with a wrench, which caused him to need a brain surgery that put him in a coma?" Maxie snapped right back.

Lulu chuckled and shook her head. "I don't have to explain myself to you. You weren't even there so you have no idea what happened. It was a mistake. "

Taking an aggressive step towards Lulu, Maxie lowered her voice, "A mistake? A mistake is a wrong answer on a test not losing faith in the man you supposedly love. If anyone should have had some faith in him it should have been you. Instead you've been playing him, sneaking around with Johnny, and then trying to off him like this is some sick game of Clue."

"I'm not the one who plays games Maxie, that's always been your M.O. And I'm wondering what game you're playing now, I thought you hated Logan and here I find you playing what? Nursemaid? If I was Logan I'd be a little worried that you'd slip into the role of Angel of Mercy and spike his chicken soup. How come everyone seems to be pointing the finger at me, when you weren't any better? If someone hadn't walked in his room when they did you probably would have pulled the plug."

"Oh please Lulu, everyone knows there is no love lost between Logan and I, plus it's partially your fault that I thought he was the TMK since it was your friend Spinelli that convinced me. Meaning Logan had to be the one that killed my sister and my boyfriend and attacked me in my own home. I think I might have been a little bit justified in thinking about pulling the plug on him, but I couldn't actually do it. So if I were you I'd be the one worrying about posing for a mug shot at PCPD. Let's just thank God his head is harder than his heart is, since mooning all over you is what landed him in the hospital in the first place."

"You bitch." Lulu yelled rearing back to slap her but Maxie caught her hand before she had the chance.

"Just get the hell out of here. If Logan wants to talk to you when he wakes up, I'm sure he has your number, but I wouldn't hold your breath."

After Lulu spun around on her heel and marched off to her car, Maxie leaned against Logan's door and focused on her calming her rapidly beating heart until she finally heard the car peel out of the parking lot.

She closed her eyes and the scene from the hospital flashed before them; she remembered watching them standing way too close in the hallway outside of Logan's room and Johnny kept trying to touch her and Lulu kept nervously looking over her shoulder down the hallway. Maxie couldn't help herself and slipped behind the open door of the supply closet to listen in.

_Lulu looked over her shoulder again."I'm sorry I just feel so guilty. Maybe we should have waited."_

_Johnny ran his fingers down Lulu's arm and lowered his voice. "You don't have anything to feel guilty about. We both had thought that Logan was the TMK at the time, that shouldn't have anything to do with how we feel about each other or what happened that night."_

_She raised her hands to her face and pushed away the tears that were threatening to fall. "It was the wrong Johnny. I never should have slept with you the same night I hurt Logan. And on top of it all the TMK wasn't even Logan, it was Diego."_

"_What are you saying that you don't want to be with me?" he glowered at her._

"_No, that's not it but I need to try and make this up to Logan. It's a loose end that I need to tie up or it's always going to hang over my head that instead of being here with Logan I was making love to you."_

Maxie tucked the memory away for a later date and adjusted the laundry basket on her hip. She never liked Lulu and wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of 'tying up loose ends' . With friends like that Logan didn't need enemies, she just wasn't sure why she cared so much about what happened to him. Maybe it was because of losing Coop, or because she understood what it was like to be left behind. With one last look at his apartment door she headed to her car. Her plan was to be back before Logan woke up, she just hoped that she had a few hours to get all her ducks in a row first. Since she had some errands to do and a phone call to make to Scott before Lulu went crying to him about big bad Maxie Jones.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Logan awoke to find his undressed body wrapped around a fully clothed sleeping female. He tensed and carefully extracted his arm from hers and rolled onto his back trying to put all the pieces together. The last thing he remembered was following Maxie to his bed after he got home from the hospital. But now the apartment was dark except for the soft glow from the light over the stove in the kitchen, which he never left on.

He glanced over at the alarm, 3:30am and struggled to fill in the lost time.  
"Don't burn your brain out; you've been asleep since you got home from the hospital this afternoon." She croaked and rolled onto her stomach to look at him, her face illuminated by the glow of his clock radio.

"How long have I been out?" he asked.

"I left you around 2:30 this afternoon but I woke you up a few times for your medicine, but all you wanted to do was go back to sleep afterwards." She finished rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Logan eyed Maxie dubiously, faintly recalling the feel cool liquid being pressed to his lips. "That doesn't explain why you are still here or in bed with me."

"Oh don't get your panties in a bunch." She snorted, throwing off the afghan she had covered herself up with and fumbled for her shoes. "Patrick said it was important for you to keep your meds on a tight time schedule and that you really shouldn't be home alone for the first few days."

"I have a couch you know." He retorted.

"Yeah right, that thing you call a couch was so uncomfortable we ended up having sex on the floor instead, and you expect me to sleep on it? Guess again buddy, I'd rather take the chance of you molesting me in my sleep."

He watched her as she smoothed down her hair and adjusted her shirt, wondering what was exactly going on with her. Something was definitely up…

"Are you hungry? I can get you something to eat." She said glancing at the clock on the nightstand, "Plus your due for some more medication in a half hour." Maxie added fidgeting at the end of his bed.

He laughed and answered her, "I don't have anything here to eat."

"Uh yes you do, I grabbed a few things when I picked up your prescriptions this afternoon. Oh and by the way, I had to tell the pharmacist that I was your wife or he wasn't going to let me pick them up for you."

He sat up and scrutinized the petite blonde in front of him. "Wow, I don't know what to say except who are you and where is the real Maxie?"He asked swinging his feet down to land on the cold floor.

He swayed a little and she moved to take his arm. "Are you alright?" she asked with concern.

"Yeah just a little whoozy. Patrick said it would pass in time."

"Well what do you need? Can I get it for you." She pressed with genuine concern in her voice.

"Sorry Maxie, but unfortunately there are something you can't do for me." He replied as he slowly made his way to the bathroom.

The dull headache still lingered and when he flipped the light on in the small bathroom, it grew to a more prominent throb. He splashed water on his face and glared at his reflection in the mirror. His cheeks seemed sunken in, his skin was pale and he desperately needed a shave. "Damn" he groused realizing he hadn't even looked this bad when he got back from Iraq.

"Screw it." He muttered and flipped the shower on and waited for the water the heat up, right now he didn't care if the sound of shower woke up his neighbors. When it was hot enough he slipped behind the shower door and let the steam wrap around him. He sighed as he slipped the bar of soap over his body washing away the smell of hospitals and disinfectants.

He heard the click of the bathroom door lock as he turned off the water and slowly shook his head, "Sorry to disappoint you but it looks like I won't be needing that sponge bath tonight so why don't you just run along home and bother someone else."

"As if you'd be so lucky. Looking for one of these?" she asked tossing a towel over the steamed up shower door. "I them this afternoon and washed them with the rest of your stuff, how is it that you only own two towels?"

"Well because I'm a guy and I only need one towel at time." He replied drying his face and then shifting the towel to wrap it low around his hips before he slid the door open.

He found her leaning against the sink with her arms crossed in front of her chest as her gaze flicked appraisingly over his bare chest. "What did you do for your precious Lulu? Oh yeah that's right she's with Johnny now, I bet it's because he has more than two towels in that big old mansion."

"I knew this new side of Maxie had to be too good to be true." He muttered while not so gently nudging her aside so he could get to the mirror to shave. Her words caught up with him and he stopped, putting his razor back down turning to her. "Wait a minute, you did my laundry?"

"Yep, cute boxers by the way. Hope you don't mind the starch." She answered and left the small bathroom to leave him more confused ever. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

He pulled on a clean t-shirt from the pile he found neatly stacked on top of his dresser, inhaling the sweet smell of fabric softener that he loved but was always too lazy to use. The sound of plates scraping together and silverware jingling came from the kitchen and he was surprised when he rounded the corner into the kitchen. Maxie pulled toast out of from the toaster oven and scraped butter over the hot bread, while bacon sizzled in a frying pan on top of the stove.

"How do you like your eggs?" she asked as she pulled them out of the refrigerator.

"The same way I like my women, over easy." He answered as he straddled the stool at the breakfast bar to watch her.

Her cool blue eyes flicked up to meet his. "Don't make me wish you were still in a coma."

He hid a smirk as he ignored her meaningless threat and took a sip of the orange juice she had poured. The juice burned on the way down his throat and he grimaced sliding the glass closer to her. "I didn't know you knew how to cook."

"Like that's a surprise." She bristled as she turned her attention back to the stove to flip the bacon and start on his eggs . Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper, "There is a lot about me you don't know."

He didn't respond to her statement, opting instead to watch her as she skillfully moved about his kitchen. Her short blonde hair hid the majority of her face, as she expertly drained the bacon grease into an old can and placed the hot bacon onto papertowels.

She reached for the empty plate that she had pulled out of the cabinet earlier and piled bacon and toast onto it for him. She made a quick stop at the stove to flip his eggs onto it before placing the plate in front of him.

She leaned against the counter opposite him resting her elbows on the countertop and watched him take his first bite.

He groaned at the first burst of flavor hit his tongue and swallowed."Perfect." he answered to her unasked question.

She snagged a piece of bacon off his plate and he looked up at her. "Aren't you eating?"

She took a bite out of bacon strip as a pained expression crossed her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked putting his fork down.

"Nothing. It's just that Georgie and I used to do this all the time." She paused before continuing. " I would come home really late from some date and she would be in the kitchen. We'd end up making breakfast at 4 am before I would crash until noon. I don't know how she always knew when I was going to be home. It is one of the things I miss the most, the times we would share giggling over scrambled eggs and burnt toast."

"I'm sorry Maxie." was the only response that even seemed possible to give her.

"It's fine." she stood up an wiped the countertop with a dishtowel he didn't even know he owned."It wasn't you fault, everyone knows that now."

He jammed his fork into his egg continuing, "It doesn't make it any easier to swallow now does it? You thought I did it, hell even Lulu believed I did."

Logan noticed that at the mention of Lulu's name, Maxie visibly flinched as she looked away. "You know I don't blame you right?" he added.

Maxie's gaze lifted out of whatever memory she was re-living to look at him."You don't?"

"No, I probably would have thought the same thing in your position. Except I know that I loved Coop like a brother, he was the only family I had for the longest time I never would have hurt him like that." He added and looked back into his plate.

She looked conflicted at his answer and when he looked up again he watched as she built a wall between them one brick at a time. "So you don't think sleeping with me all those months ago didn't hurt him?" she mocked.

"As I remember it you were the one that blackmailed me into that." He responded unfazed by the snarky tone that had suddenly laced her voice.

"Yeah well I didn't hear you complaining when it happened. But it's okay, I understand how you needed a real woman after you had to put on training wheels so you wouldn't scare off Lulu." She answered taking a sip out of the orange juice she had poured for him. She looked over the glass before continuing, "I can't imagine that she saw or could handle that freaky side of you."

Logan shook his head and broke out into a grin as memories of that night on his living room floor replayed. "Maxie Jones, you certainly are something else, but I really don't want to talk about Lulu right now."

"Well I guess that would be my cue to tell you that she stopped by earlier." She replied, passing the glass along between the palms of her hands.

"She did?" he asked looking up from his food.

She placed the empty glass into the sink. "Yeah but I sent her packing."

"What did she want?" he asked finally pushing away his empty plate.

Her brilliant blue eyes twinkled in the way they did when Maxie was up to no good. "I 'm not sure I exactly gave her much of an opportunity to speak. "she said taking his plate away.

"Did you leave claw marks?" he joked as he made his way around the kitchen island to where Maxie had lined up his prescription bottles.

"You just wish you could have watched." She quipped back turning to him. "I'm gonna run home for a little bit, you gonna be able to stay out of trouble while I'm gone?"

He glared at her, "I don't need a baby sitter Maxie."

"Yes you do, for a few days at least. So just pretend I'm some ditzy nurse practicing my bedside manner with you and it will be over before you know it. I'm sure there is some twisted fantasy like that buried in that head of yours."

He laughed and read the labels on the bottles, "So Nurse Jones, when am I supposed to take these again?"

She checked her watch. "You can take one blue and two white ones now. The green one is every twelve hours so you're good until noon, but I'll be back by then."

"I'll only let you back in if you have on a little white nurses outfit with one of those little hats." he teased.

"Keep dreaming buddy." She replied as she grabbed her handbag and his keys on the way out the door.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Maxie rummaged through her closet looking for favorite pair of jeans to pack when she came across a neatly folded brown shirt. She gathered up the material in her hands, letting her fingers run over the torn fabric where buttons had once been stitched and remembered the sound each one made when it had popped off under Logan's insistent hands.

She had many regrets in her life but sleeping with Logan Hayes was not one of them; the only thing that did irk her was that it had something to do with Lulu Spencer. There was just something about Logan that drew her in. Maybe it was that sexy smirk and his bad boy side, but most likely it was because she knew that he didn't want her and that made him a challenge. It was unlike anything she had ever felt and it forced her to switch the rules of the bet just so she could have him.

She had been intentionally keeping her distance from him since she hadn't been able to shake off the tingle of his touch or the thrill of excitement that had coursed through her body when he had laid her down on his dining room table.

Insert flashback….the Mature Content of this chapter has been removed for posting on this website. If you would like to read the chapter in its entirety please visit my message board, the link is in my profile.

The memory of that day was burned in her memory and Maxie hadn't been able let it go. She wasn't even sure she wanted to. Maybe she was scared to admit to herself that it had meant more to her than she had been letting on. Even last night when he rolled over and his breath had tickled her neck, a familiar heat worked its way up her thighs.

"Masochist." She muttered as she re-folded the shirt and cursed herself for landing in this situation to begin with. Staying with Logan in that tiny apartment even for a few days without those feelings popping up was going to be the hardest thing she had even done. But she promised Scott that she would help Logan get back on his feet no matter how long it took. If someone actually believed that Maxie Jones didn't have a conscience, then they never really knew her to begin with.

Maxie slipped a sweatshirt into her duffle bag and glanced around her room for anything else she might need when a knock sounded against her apartment door. She zipped it up and hauled the bag with her as she made her way to answer the door. She checked the peep and sighed as she unlocked the deadbolt, partially grateful for the distraction before she went back over to the apartment .

"What are you doing here?" she asked as Scott stepped around her and made his way into the living room.

"I got your voicemail yesterday and I was trying to get a hold of you." He answered spotting her bag she dropped next to the door. "You heading back over there?"

"Not that it is any of your business, but yes I am." Maxie snapped and crossed her arms across her chest, "Let's just cut to the chase what are you doing about Lulu?"

Scott shoved his hands in his pockets and frowned, "I'm working on it."

"Yeah, well, you better work a little harder because Lulu is going to be back and I'm not sure Logan is ready to deal with that yet." She pressed.

His face tensed at the mention of his son's name. "How is he doing? Does he need anything?" he asked with concern.

Maxie slung her bag over shoulder and collected her hand bag from the couch, "You're his father why don't you just ask him?"

"Look, the kid wouldn't even call me for a ride home from the hospital. You don't actually think he is going to let me help him do you?" he asked.

"Are you expecting me to feel sorry for you?" she spat. "I know what it's like to have a father who doesn't want to be around. "

Scott took a step closer and leaned in, searching her cool blue eyes. "What game you are playing Maxie? Why are you so suddenly concerned about him? You volunteered right away to help my son when I told you he checked himself out of the hospital. What's in it for you?"

Maxie stepped around him and opened the door, "Look, I agreed to help you out so stop asking so many damn questions and just keep Lulu out of the way."

She opened the trunk of her car, tossed her bag in and slammed it shut, then climbed into the driver's seat. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the steering wheel. Why did everyone think that she had to have some agenda? Couldn't she just simply care about someone?

She wiped the tear that threatened to fall and started the car. She stopped by the Sushi restaurant to pick up some take out for lunch and made her way back to Logan's. She had to circle the lot twice before she whipped into the only empty parking space and spotted Lulu's car one row over.

"Shit." she muttered and collected her things.


End file.
